Buzz on signees, recruiting

Sorry I wasn't able to get this posted sooner, but here is what coach Buzz Williams had to say about Juan Anderson and Derrick Wilson in his annual signing day news conference on Thursday.

He also answered some general questions about recruiting, including one I posed to him about recruiting and signing post players -- a question I literally get every week from readers.

Williams opened with a general statement, and then took questions.

"Specific to the two guys that we signed, I like both them as people a whole lot. I think that as our recruiting classes have advanced, obviously we have signed a lesser number of players, and I think because of that the premium on the talent increases. And I think the premium on making sure that we sign guys that fit our culture is imperative. When you look at our roster the day I was hired, we signed Jimmy Butler. Then you look at our roster in the November of our first recruiting class -- November of last year and November of this year -- we need to continue to sign better players, but we also need to make sure that the guys we do sign fit what we're about on the floor and off the floor.

"Derrick and Juan both do that. They're both great kids, there's no academic questions involved, their character is above reproach. I think that they completely undersand what we're about. Both of those kids have been on official visits. As you guys know, we don't try to cover anything, we don't hide anything. Both of those guys have been well-coached, well-raised and completely understand what exactly we want to be about. Relative to our culture I think they fit perfectly. Relative to positions and our depth chart, they fill needs that we have losing Jimmy, Buycks and Joe. We still have, on paper as of today, one scholarship left. We'll sign that one scholarship the first opportunity we have to sign another person that fits what we want to be about off the floor and on the floor.

"Juan is from Oakland. That's a long way from Milwaukee. He played his summer ball for the Oakland Rebels, Raymond Young was his coach. He played an integral role in Juan being here. He plays at Castro Valley High School for Nick Jones, who was very supportive of his decision. You guys can understand that there were a lot of people recruiting Juan. A lot of those guys -- nearly all of those guys -- were all closer than Milwaukee. Juan's mom, Juan's family and those two coaches were very important in the relationship building that we had with Juan.

"Derrick is very similar. Derrick has been at The Hotchkiss School for four years. Plays for Fred Benjamin there. Played for the New York Gauchos, coached by Billy Singleton. But he's not from New York and he's not from Connecticut -- he's from Alaska. He's spent his whole life as a military son. He's been all over the world, literally. He was here the weekend officially that we scrimmaged Virginia, and his parents are what you would anticipate they would be -- two-parent household, both military parents, both highly value character and academics and completely understood our culture here.

"We're excited to have both of those guys here."

What does it say about the national reach of Marquette and the Big East to land these two: "That our staff is doing an incredible job of working. Just like anything else in life, I think recruiting comes down to relationships. Tony, Aki, Scott Monarch have done a great job since they've been here, and some of what we're getting into now is the residual positive impact of what we've done since we've been here. Does that necessarily mean that our scope is broader? Maybe. But as I've said all along, you have to recruit every day, and recruiting doesn't necessarily mean signing. It means building relationships, and I think our staff as a whole has done a really good job -- even when we lose a recruit -- of making sure that we leave that relationship as strong as it was when we found out we got beat. And I think that's really important. The only way you can do that is to have really good people on your staff, and really efficient workers on your staff.

"Aki's been recruiting Derrick since Aki was hired here. Tony knows the West Coast better than the rest of our staff combined because he spent part of his career there. The guy that Juan played for, he's not one of the premier shoe-company teams, but there's some residual impact in a good way. And obviously it's our league and our institution, our academics, our following -- all of those things are positive. But any major life decision, I think, comes down to relationships, and we've been accountable thus far with that, I think."

How attractive was Derrick's standing as a highly recruited football player to you, with regard to your emphasis on toughness: "I think that's why it'll work. He's a quiet kid, he's a leader by nature. Very intelligent. Some people in the room would probably describe what we've done in Kasten as football instead of basketball. When he was here in Kasten, it didn't alter what he thought at all. I think that's good. I think anytime a guy's played football at a high level...he was probably as good a football player relative to recruiting as he was in basketball, and I think that speaks to his strength, his toughness, his athleticism. So yeah, that's attractive to me."

What were some of the reasons the recruits gave for wanting to sign with MU: "As I said, I think that it always comes down to relationships. When you talk about a kid that's from Alaska who, as a freshman, went to Connecticut to a boarding school, who plays for one of, in my career, the premier East Coast teams, that's a lot of stuff. Then you look at Juan...I had never been to Oakland. All I knew about Oakland was the Raiders. I don't know that Juan knew anything about Milwaukee, to be honest. So I don't think you can sign all those guys, and all the sphere of influence that's around kids -- good or bad -- you've got to penetrate that sphere. Those kids aren't going to make the decision to come here unless all of the people in their sphere bless it. And in order for them to bless it, they've got to trust you. I love that we're in the league that we're in, the support that we have, the exposure that we have -- all those things are positive facets of a decision. But when you look at their path to that decision, I don't think they make that decision without the relationship that they have with our staff. And with our players. I'm not a big believer in official visits.

"This is the first time actually, in our three recruiting classes, that the guys we signed actually took an official visit before they made a decision -- which is probably the way it's supposed to be. But I believe on those two kids, because of their plight here, I think we had to do it. And I think if we hadn't have done it, we wouldn't have signed them."

What are Juan's and Derrick's most natural positions at the next level: "Both of them would be perimeter players. I think Derrick can guard anybody on the perimeter. I think Juan is a really good defender on the perimeter. And I think having two guys that are freshmen that can guard perimeter guys immediately definitely allows them to be on the floor. That helps us. Vander Blue, as good as he is offensively, he's great defensively, considering he's never played a game. So that's going to get him on the floor and get him more minutes than most freshmen. I think Derrick, his mentality is that of a point guard. I think Juan is just, 'What do you need me to do?' Can he play the point? It would be like Jimmy Butler. Can Jimmy Butler play the point? I think he could initiate offense for us; it may not be the best thing that he does. I like that Juan is long and athletic and switchable. I don't know that you would have thought that Mo and Cooby could have played together, but as the year went on last year it was hard to get them off the floor, and they were both midgets. Can we play with Derrick and Junior and Reggie, all three? Probably not. Will it evolve to the point that we could play with two of them? Well, if Derrick can guard multiple guys, Reggie, I believe, can guard multiple guys if they're not too big. I just think it gives us choices. It gives us options. Good choices, good options."

Can you talk about the difficulty you've had recruiting post players, and have you perhaps changed your recruiting philosophy with regard to recruiting big men: "I think we've recruited big guys since we've been here. I think Chris Otule as a sophomore, Davante Gardner as a freshman, are probably bigger than what you think. Bigger and better. We haven't altered anything. The first thing is, there's a smaller pool of candidates to recruit from -- God just didn't make as many 7-footers as He did 6-footers. And because there's a smaller pool, obviously the increased attention of those guys is multiplied. But I don't want a team full of guys that can only do a couple of things. I don't think we've won because of a lack of a big guy. I think we've won because we've had guys who do multiple things. Can you win a national championship without a big guy? I don't think so. I don't think so. But can you play for a long, long time like West Virginia did last year, without a big guy? I think so. I think the game is changing, I think recruiting is changing. I don't think there's as many big guys. And I think relative to how we play and how we work every day, you kind of have to be a little bit different of a big guy to have success here. And I think Chris and Davante are going to."

Does it have anything to do with how so many big guys are drifting to the outside, with the emphasis on spacing the floor rather than on banging down low: "They clog it up. If they can only play and be effective within 6-7 feet of the basket, now your space on the perimeter...it doesn't matter what your spacing is because there's somebody down there. I was watching Dante Cunningham play the other night when Wes was in town. He was the starting 5 at Villanova when I first got here, and they threw him the ball on the block with his back to the basket twice a game. The rest of the time he's posting up at the elbow. Literally he's posting up at the elbow. But the reason he's posting up at the elbow is so that the space on the perimeter, everybody's above free-throw line extended so now there's all that space to drive, to penetrate, to pitch. But I do think you have to have guys that can play with their backs to the basket. I think you have to have guys that can defend and rebound their position, and if you can find somebody who can score with somebody on their back, then I think you're probably onto something. But they can't be a stiff outside of the paint. Because games are won not free-throw line and down; games are won free-throw line to free-throw line. So if you're the worst guy, and you're hurting the other four guys on your team, I think it's hard to win."

Do you like having that extra scholarship going into the spring, considering how much player turnover there is at that time of year: "Back to that, I know I probably lost some people that may have thought I was a good guy. I didn't do anything wrong on DJ, even though I couldn't say anything about that. The timing made it look like I did something wrong, but I didn't do anything wrong. But I think because of the turnover rate in coaches, players, in high schools, AAU...it's a cyclical machine, and that machine runs 365 days a year. And I don't think you can ever pass on a for-sure high-major guy, if he's the character that you want to be around. But at the same time, you never want to settle and take a mid-major-plus guy, and that scholarship holds you, prevents you from taking a high-major guy four months later. I think as you build your roster, if you can take a transfer, a redshirt guy, if you can sign a guy in the late spring because he signed in November with a coach that left...you always want to at least be available. I think we've kind of done that. We didn't do it in Class No. 1 because we weren't in that position relative to our roster to be able to do that. We were just signing the best players that we could sign. But now there's a little bit more of a tunnel vision on what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it, and to always have a scholarship, I think, is good. And as of today, we still have a scholarship."